In Austria a member of the European Parliament is under investigation over dubious expense claims amounting to over €1.3M.

A request made to the European Parliament to waive Hans-Peter Martin’s immunity, by the Vienna prosecutor’s office, says the MEP is guilty of embezzling public funds “illicitly for himself or a third party by fraudulent means”.

“It is suspected that, by using money for the reimbursement of permissible costs for purposes other than those claimed, Dr Hans-Peter Martin has committed crimes of misuse of funding,” said the request.

Martin says the allegations are an invention by political opponents he has exposed wasting public funds.

When quizzed about the details & amounts detailed by the prosecutor, Martin said they were accurate but that no embezzlement was involved.

Among the questionable payments are €832,800 for “public relations work” that the prosecutor claims were to “businessmen who are friends of Dr Hans-Peter Martin & where no services were provided”.

A second issue relates to the employment of a parliamentary assistant at a cost of €67,343 where, the prosecutor say, the individual “never actually carried out any work” for Martin in connection with his parliamentary duties.

The high-point of the claims is €2,200 described in expense claims as being for an “elephant”.

So that must be the famous “elephant in the room.”